


Graduation

by rosekings



Series: New Spring [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M, the softest finale there ever was
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 05:59:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17698961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosekings/pseuds/rosekings
Summary: Steve drags something out of his pocket. “Hold this.”Jonathan stares at what he’s offering, confused. He looks back up at Steve. Down. Up. His beating heart puts it together faster than his foggy head.“This is your hand.”





	Graduation

Jonathan is in the middle of exchanging textbooks with his locker and his messenger bag when a hand gently touches the crook of his elbow. He turns to see Nancy standing there, a soft smile on her face, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Hey, Nancy,” he says, shoving a chemistry book into his bag. 

“Hey.” She drops her hand, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. Jonathan glances over at her; she’s practically radiating nerves. 

“Um…something going on?”

She bites her lip like she’s hesitant to answer, and finally she says, “I think we should talk.”

His first thought is _oh, thank God,_ relief flooding through him like a dam split in half. He’s been meaning to start this conversation ever since they got back from Murray’s in November, but, well. “Yeah. Now?”

She nods, relaxing when she sees his eagerness. “If you have a minute?”

“Ten of them, actually.”

He shuts his locker and together they fold into the crowd of students swarming up and down the hallway. Mixed in with the whispers of gossip and the raucous discussions of yesterday’s football game and the class bells and the squeak of shoes scuffing on the tile is the restless yet exhausted energy from all the seniors, palpable like a current in the air. The end of finals is tomorrow and graduation is just two weeks away, and then they’re free. They can all see it, taste it, it’s _right there_ – they just have to jump a few more hurdles.

Nancy tugs on Jonathan’s arm and they slip into an empty classroom, the heavy door muffling all the sounds from outside. Nancy crosses to lean against the teacher’s desk, the edge digging into her palms. Jonathan doesn’t really know where to go so he just decides to hover between her and the first row of student desks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“So…” Nancy starts slowly, drumming her nails on the side of the desk. “How are finals going?”

He shrugs. “Fine, I guess. Everyone’s pretty ready for them to be over.”

“I can’t believe you’re graduating,” she says ruefully. “I have a whole year left until I’m out of here.”

He gives her a wry smile. “You’ll make it through.”

“Do you know what you’ll do after? Are you leaving?”

“Um, I haven’t really thought about it yet. Maybe.” The truth is no, he won’t be leaving, because it just feels wrong to leave Will and his mom here by themselves. But if he says that, Nancy will argue that he has his own life to live and he’ll say it doesn’t really matter to him and they’ll just go in circles and never get anywhere, so he keeps his mouth shut.

They stare at each other for a long moment and just like that, the line of conversation dies in the face of the more pressing issue. Jonathan’s not sure how to break the silence and move on with what they came here to talk about, but fortunately for him, Nancy has never had any issue with being blunt.

She starts chewing on her lip again, eyeing him tentatively. “Jonathan…” The weight of her voice carries a thousand more words and he understands exactly what she’s trying to say. It’s all been ricocheting off the walls of his head for months now.

“Yeah,” he agrees.

“Please tell me I haven’t been reading all of this completely wrong.”

“No. You haven’t.”

She exhales in relief, nodding. “Okay. Good. I’m sorry, I really am, I’m just…I’m not ready for another relationship right now. I’m still dealing with everything that happened, and…what happened with _us –_ “

“I get it, Nancy. Really. It was, um…fun?” he tries, wincing at his own word choice. She laughs and it dispels most of the remaining tension from their nerves, so he goes on. “But I get it. I don’t think either of us want that, together.”

“Definitely not.”

“Sorry I never took you on a date,” he says with a smile. She rolls her eyes.

“Don’t sweat it.”

Jonathan takes a deep breath, suddenly feeling a whole lot lighter now that the worry of what would become of him and Nancy is gone. He glances at his watch just as the shrill class bell rings. “My ten minutes are almost up. I have a Calculus final next.”

She makes a face as she pushes off the desk. “Gross. Good luck, though. Am I invited to your graduation?” 

He considers, following her to the door of the classroom. “I don’t think anyone but seniors and family members are allowed.”

“I’ll just sneak in, then. But do you _want_ me there?”

“Of course I want you there. You can remind me not to trip on the gown and fall off the stage.”

She snorts, reaching out for the doorknob but then stopping short and turning around, worry filling her eyes. “We can still be friends, right? I mean –“

“What?” He shakes his head, confused that she would even think that. “Nancy, if you’re not my friend, who else am I going to hunt monsters with? Who else is going to have my back?”

Her relief at his words is visible and she smiles again. “Okay, good. Just making sure.” 

Jonathan lets the door fall shut behind him as they step outside the classroom, the hallway almost empty now that everyone has moved to their next period. Nancy faces him and starts talking again, but Jonathan misses what she’s saying because he’s just caught sight Steve standing down the hall and for some reason, it kills all hearing function he has.

It's a weird out-of-body moment. Steve pauses in the act of shutting his locker, his eyes finding Jonathan’s, and for a second they just stare at each other until Steve’s expression lightens and he gives Jonathan something halfway between a smirk and a smile, like he’s saying _it’s good to see you but also you look like you’ve seen a ghost right now and it’s pretty hilarious._ Jonathan doesn’t really know how to react until Steve sees Nancy standing there, his eyes flicking between them and his brightness fading just a little, and suddenly Jonathan realizes what it looks like. He and Nancy just came out of an empty classroom together. He shakes his head, _no, that isn’t what happened, I promise,_ and just like that Steve nods, his lightheartedness returning. _Okay. Cool._

The amount of trust Steve immediately places in him twists his stomach. He doesn’t deserve that.

“- and I honestly just can’t believe that she’d _do_ something like – Jonathan, are you even listening?”

He blinks, tearing his gaze away to look down at Nancy. “What?”

She narrows her eyes, looking over her shoulder just in time to see Steve’s attention fall away from Jonathan. He shuts his locker, waves at Nancy, and then he’s gone, probably off to a final just like Jonathan _should_ be.

Nancy whips back around, her scrutinizing gaze enough to make Jonathan cower (it usually does). “What was that?” she demands.

Jonathan’s mouth goes completely dry. “What was what?”

“ _That._ Why was he looking at you like that?”

“Like what?” he evades, dragging the toe of his shoe back and forth across the scuffed tile.

“Like _that._ Like – like – you know what I mean! You were looking at him the exact same way, I saw you!” she exclaims. “Since when do you two, I don’t know, _interact?_ ”

_Since five months ago when I first started liking him even though I probably shouldn’t and since he came to my house a month ago and we went on a walk together and since we started talking to each other in between classes and since last week when he brought me lunch and looked at my photos and since I started laughing at his jokes and since he proved to me he’s not actually an asshole anymore._

Yeah, like Jonathan can say all that out loud.

“Since…recently?” he says slowly, shifting his weight. Nancy raises her eyebrows in extreme disbelief.

“Jonathan. _That_ was not normal. _That_ wasn’t a friend look, that was –“

“ _Okay_ , I have to go,” he announces, adjusting his bag strap on his shoulder. Nancy’s shock melts into a grin because, yeah, it’s pretty obvious what he’s avoiding now, and she grabs at his arm before he can walk away.

“ _Waitwaitwait,_ Jonathan – I talked to him the other day. He’s – I mean, there’s nothing between us. At all. Just so everything is clear. I wasn’t saying you and I shouldn’t be together just because I wanted to get back with him.”

He nods, impatiently waiting for her to release him because _holy shit_ he does _not_ want to discuss his feelings about Steve with her. “Great. Not that I thought that, but good to know.”

She playfully raises an eyebrow at him. “Let me know if something happens.”

“God, Nancy, _okay._ ” He finally tears his arm away from her and heads down the hall, heat steadily working its way up his neck, Nancy’s clear laughter rebounding off the walls.

 

_Two more hours and you’re free. You’re done with all of it. Two more hours._

Jonathan’s knee won’t stop bouncing. Up and down, up and down, stopping when he thinks about it and then firing back up when his mind moves onto other things. His hands won’t stop shaking either, but that’s not new. 

_It’s just graduation. Calm down. It’s not like you’re valedictorian and have to give a speech or something._

He takes shallow breaths, doubling over, elbows on his knees as he leans against the wall of the hallway. The sleeves of his forest green graduation robe slide against his arms; he’s got his clothes on underneath, unlike a group of seniors who, in the last study hall, declared that they were going streaking as soon as they got their diplomas. The entire school is empty, as it should be – everyone is already gathered out on the football field since their gym was too small for their graduating class and family members to all fit inside. He should be out there in the bubbly spring atmosphere, chatting with all his classmates about how ready he is to get that sheet of paper and stride off the stage to freedom. They won’t need him to start assembling for another half hour, though, so he has just enough time to pull himself together here in this empty hallway that he’ll never walk again.

He's not nervous about graduating, he’s having an internal breakdown over what comes next. What’s after, now that he doesn’t have anyone telling him to get up at six each morning to sit in school for half the day and then go to work until he’s dead on his feet and then go home and sleep and start it all over? Is he supposed to leave? That’s what all his friends are doing, except Steve, apparently. They’ve all got scholarships and references and plans to get far, far away from this little town Jonathan has always called home. He’d like to go somewhere eventually. NYU, maybe, for photography. Before eighty-three it was all he could think about, but now the thought of leaving Will and his mom alone opens up a gaping black hole inside him and leaves him desperate for air.

Of course, they aren’t really alone. Will has all his friends (including telekinetic, ass-kicking El) and Joyce has Hopper. But for so long it was just the three of them, back to back and arm in arm at each other’s lowest points. 

He sighs, dragging his hands through his hair. He feels like _Should I Stay or Should I Go_ has been on repeat in his head ever since he started senior year.

“Having second thoughts?”

Jonathan looks up, his heart skipping when he sees Steve heading towards him, robe unzipped so he can have his hands shoved in his pockets. He looks so much more relaxed than usual – Jonathan underestimated how badly he wanted to leave Hawkins and how much of a relief graduation would be for him.

Jonathan swallows. “No,” he says, straightening up. Steve comes to lean against the wall next to him, and though Jonathan honestly tries not to focus on their brushing shoulders, it’s already too late.

“You don’t have to do that,” Steve says quietly. 

“Do what?”

“Lie.”

“I’m not…” He sighs. “I’m not having second thoughts about _graduating,_ ” he amends. Steve nods, tilting his head back. Looking at him under the harsh white light of the building, Jonathan realizes there’s faint purple smudges underneath his eyes.

“I get it,” Steve says, fiddling with the tassel on his cap as he stares at the ceiling. “I thought today would be some big grand finale or some shit. I thought that once I passed the last test and got the robe and stood up on that stage, I’d know what to do next. It would just _click,_ like it has for everyone else, but now I’m here and I have literally no idea what I’m supposed to be doing now.”

Jonathan looks down at his quivering hands and the cap he’s holding. He never got the time to decorate it. “Me neither.”

He feels Steve’s eyes on him and he musters the courage to look up. Steve isn’t that much taller than him – just an inch or two. 

“But hey,” Steve says, pulling up his shoulders and managing a smile, “I know at least one thing I’m doing after this.”

“What?” Jonathan’s eyes widen. “Christ, please tell me you’re not going streaking.”

Steve laughs. “Tempting, but no. I’m going for a drive.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere. Get all this shit out of my head. Might be a few hours, might be a few days.” He pauses. “You wanna come with?”

Though his tone is offhand, it’s more than just one simple question. It’s a hundred, each one about them. There’s room for a _yes_ and a _no_ and a _not yet._ But just like when Steve asked him to go on a walk all those weeks ago, Jonathan doesn’t really need to think it over.

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Sweet.”

They lean against the wall in silence for a while, letting the minutes tick by before they have to go out there and be people again. At some point, Steve nudges him with his shoulder.

“Hey, are your hands still –“

Jonathan holds them up before he can finish for both of them to see – washed out under the hall lights, shaking ever so slightly, just enough to drive him mad. “Yeah.”

“I’ve come up with a solution.”

Jonathan frowns at him. “What?”

Steve drags something out of his pocket. “Hold this.”

Jonathan stares at what he’s offering, confused. He looks back up at Steve. Down. Up. His beating heart puts it together faster than his foggy head.

“This is your hand.”

Steve smiles. “Yeah, it is.”

_Room for a yes, a no, a not yet._

He holds Steve’s hand.

 

“Jonathan! _Jonathan!”_

Jonathan has barely made it to the back of the field, behind all the rows of chairs after receiving his diploma, before Nancy is flying at him. They collide with a mighty _oomph_ and she throws his arms around his neck, laughing into his shoulder. He grins, hugging her tightly.

“You did it,” she says triumphantly, pulling back to look at him. “You made it.”

He beams at her. “I did. Couldn’t have done it without you there.”

“Shut up, yes you could have.” She releases him and holds out her arm, the strap of his camera wrapped around her hand. “Here. I brought this.”

_“Steve Harrington!”_

Jonathan takes his camera and they both turn to watch Steve ascend the stage. He’s got a skip in his step, a wide grin on his face, and when the principal hands him his diploma, he faces the crowd and takes a swooping bow. Nancy howls her cheers as he straightens and for just a moment, his eyes find Jonathan standing in the back. Jonathan smiles at him, raising his camera to take a photo. His hands don’t shake.

And then Steve’s off the stage, running towards them, squeezing past the orderly stream of graduates between the chairs and the edge of the field, robe flying up behind his ankles. Nancy slams him in a hug as soon as he gets to them, their bodies shaking with laughter.

“I’m free, Nance!” he cheers, swinging her around in victory. She staggers a bit when he sets her down, her grin there nonetheless. 

“I’m so proud of you two.”

Steve’s attention turns to Jonathan and he playfully raises an eyebrow. “Wanna hug it out, Byers?”

Jonathan wrinkles his nose. “No.”

Steve hugs him anyways. It isn’t the end of the world.

“Here, let me get a picture,” Nancy says, taking the camera and both of their diplomas from them.

“Ah, yes, my camera,” Steve says, adjusting his cap that got tipsy on his head after running. “Do you think that photo of me up there will turn out? I want to frame it, poster-size, and plaster it to my fridge so I can look at it every single day and remember how fucking _awesome_ I looked up on that stage.”

Nancy laughs, but Jonathan is caught up on the first part of what Steve said. “Wait, what? _Your_ camera?”

Steve freezes, an _oh shit_ look forming in his eyes that Jonathan doesn’t understand. “I meant yours,” he says hastily. “Because it’s _yours._ ”

“So why did you say yours?”

“I did!”

“No, you said _my camera_ , as in, yours!”

Steve winces, looking desperately to Nancy over Jonathan’s shoulder. “Nance –“

Jonathan whips around to see her shrug, a knowing smile on her face. “Can’t help you,” she says innocently, toying with the camera. Steve groans and Jonathan turns back to him, completely in awe.

“You bought it,” he says faintly. “Not Nancy.”

He never thought about who had actually gone out and purchased the camera. Nancy had gifted it to him on Christmas so he just assumed it was from her, but she was never the one who owed it to him. And hadn’t Steve’s car been in the driveway that night?

He glances over his shoulder at Nancy. Her smile grows. “All his,” she confirms.

“Unbelievable.” He looks back to Steve in dismay. “All this time it was you, and you didn’t tell me.”

Steve looks at him helplessly. “What does it even matter? It was my fault yours got wrecked, getting you a new one was literally the bare minimum of what I should have –“

Jonathan doesn’t care to hear any more – instead, he grabs a fistful of Steve’s robe, yanks him close, and kisses him. _Oh. Oh. Oh._ There’s people around, so many people, but Jonathan finds that he can’t even begin to focus on that because Steve’s mouth is soft and his arms are wrapped tightly around Jonathan and he’s _kissing back,_ and it’s everything good in the world here in this one moment. He feels his body curve inward, his hand on the back of Steve’s neck to keep him there, chests pressed so close together he doesn’t know whose heartbeat is whose anymore. His cap slides off his head and Steve catches it before it can fall all the way to the ground.

Never would he have thought he would kiss Steve Harrington one day. Somewhat distantly, he hears a camera shutter click behind him.

After an extremely inappropriate amount of time stood there lip-locked, they pull away, air having become a necessity. Steve really is a sight to behold, his cheeks flushed and his lips red and kiss-bitten. Jonathan’s head is spinning, the ground uncertain beneath him, but there’s a heady rush of joy flooding his veins and saturating his bones. This is everything in the world.

“It _matters,_ ” he says breathlessly, “because you never wanted any credit. That _matters_ to me.”

Steve grins, his eyes sparking wild, and he carefully replaces Jonathan’s cap. “Should’ve told you sooner then, if I knew it was gonna get me a kiss like _that.”_

Jonathan shakes his head to hide the ridiculous smile he can feel spreading across his face. The sun is shining so much brighter now. He untangles his hand from the front of Steve’s robe and glances around, which is a huge mistake – every single teenager he’s spent the last four years with is staring at them, slack-jawed.

“Oh.” He looks back at Steve. “That’s a lot of people.”

“Who gives a shit? We never have to see any of these assholes ever again, man.” Steve looks at the crowd and, with a wide smile, flips all of them off. Jonathan can’t help the laugh that bursts from him, and he feels a hand on his back.

“I thought it was amazing,” Nancy says, eyes sparkling. She offers him his camera. “I took a picture, just in case you wanted to remember that.”

_I’m never_ forgetting _that._ “Thanks, Nancy.” 

She gives both of them a hug and then slips away, off to who knows where. 

“Alright then, Byers,” Steve says merrily, unzipping the front of his robe and sliding an arm around Jonathan. Jonathan laces their hands together where Steve’s drapes over his shoulder. “What next?”

_What next?_ Jonathan exhales everything out of his lungs, watching people mill around the field. For ages he’s been stressing over that question, that impending future with a big question mark stamped on it. Where to go, what to do, who to be. Thinking about it now, though, he finds barely a tinge of concern. He doesn’t have to have everything mapped out. He knows what he’s doing today, and maybe tomorrow and the day after, and right now, that’s enough.

“I need to see my family. And then…are we still going on that drive?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“Yeah.” Jonathan takes a deep breath, letting the new spring air fill him up. “That’s what I want.”

**Author's Note:**

> that's it for this! thanks so much for reading and for all your comments; love you guys! my tumblr is dustinhendrsn if you ever wanna come talk <3


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